1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that prints on a printing medium based on printing data, a printing method, and a storage medium storing a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
When printing a plurality of copies, it is necessary to shorten the total time taken for printing, increase the productivity, and suppress the cost. A method of shortening the printing time is, for example, a method of reducing the total printing time by hastening the start time of paper feeding of the current printing material and the next printing material.
In some cases, collation printing is performed to print in a printing order of pages such as 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, and 3 as a page configuration for the plurality of copies. In other cases, non-collation printing is performed to print in the printing order of pages 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 3. When performing collation printing, a host apparatus analyzes the contents of printing data saved in the host apparatus, and determines whether to perform collation (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-192395). When an image forming apparatus (to be referred to as a printing apparatus hereinafter) can receive printing data of one copy such as pages 1, 2, and 3 from the host apparatus and save them in the printing apparatus, it can print a plurality of copies in accordance with a collation printing notification from the host apparatus.
However, some printing apparatuses cannot save all printing data of one copy transmitted from the host apparatus owing to the limitation of the capacity of the buffer memory. Such a printing apparatus is configured to sequentially print printing data transmitted from the host apparatus. The host apparatus creates all printing data for the printing apparatus that performs sequential printing. If printing is collation printing, the host apparatus transmits printing data of, for example, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, and 3 to the printing apparatus. If printing is not collation printing, the host apparatus creates printing data of, for example, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, and 3, and transmits them to the printing apparatus. The method of analyzing printing data in the host apparatus, which is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-192395, cannot be applied to such a printing apparatus.
That is, in the above-described case, the printing apparatus cannot recognize in advance whether the page configuration is designed for collation, and cannot perform appropriate printing corresponding to the page configuration.